A free, script-in-hand reading of SPARK, written by Caridad Svich and directed by Daniel Banks, will perform at Teatro Paraguas Studio in Santa Fe tonight, November 14 at 7pm. Part of an international reading scheme which aims to honor veterans of wars recent and past and to promote spiritual healing, SPARK will be performed across the United States and abroad throughout the month of November; thirty-nine readings of the play are currently confirmed.

Set in the mess of a recent war’s aftermath, SPARK chronicles the struggles and determination of three sisters in a small US town. It’s about what happens when soldiers come home, when women of little economic means must find a way to make do and carry on, and of the strength, ultimately, of family. It is a contemporary story of faith, love, war, trauma and healing. The Santa Fe cast of SPARK includes local actors Nicole Gramlich, Kate Kita, Elias Gallegos, Nicholas Ballas and Lesley Reveles. Immediately following the reading, there will be a conversation with local women who have been impacted by war. The discussion will be facilitated by Lenore Gallegos.

Caridad Svich is a US Latina playwright, translator, lyricist and editor. She received the 2012 OBIE for Lifetime Achievement and the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize for her play The House of the Spirits, based on the novel by Isabel Allende. See her full bio at www.caridadsvich.com. Daniel Banks, Ph.D., is a theatre director, choreographer, educator, and dialogue facilitator. He has worked extensively in the U.S. and abroad, is Co-Director of Theatre Without Borders, a founding member of the Acting Together project in the Program for Peacebuilding and the Arts at Brandeis University and sits on the Editorial Board of NoPassport Press. He has guest lectured extensively across the United States and is editor of the recently released critical anthology of Hip Hop Theatre plays Say Word!: Voices from Hip Hop Theater for the University of Michigan Press. See his full bio at www.dnaworks.org.